PPC Competitor Analysis Services

PPC competitor analysis is vital to create a high-performance PPC campaign. PPC competitive research gives you an understanding of competitor strengths and weaknesses, and reveals areas where you can capitalize on an advantage or create one.

PPC Competitor Research Tools

A number of PPC competitive analysis tools that provide mountains of data and save a great deal of time are currently available, with prices and the nature of data varying from tool to tool. Here is a thumbnail sketch of several of the most popular options.

AdBeat — "Shows where traffic comes from, what it does within the site, and where it goes when it leaves the site."

iSpionage — Provides data on keywords and ad copy, to assist in evaluating CTR and CPC. Has historical PPC data for Google and Bing.

Keyword Spy — Helps identify profitable keyword-ad copy combinations and important keyword data such as ad spenders with the largest change in number of targeted keywords and keywords with the largest CPC change.

KeywordCompetitor — In addition to a wide range of PPC competitive analyses, this tool has a real-time competitor- monitoring component.

SpyFU — Provides nine years of history for competitive keywords, organic rank and ad variation.

Important PPC competitor analysis tip: These tools are not reliable in reporting PPC campaign spends and that data should be disregarded. Only Google and Bing know the ad spend for a given advertiser, and these tools do not have access to that information. As a result, they use flawed methods to estimate budget.

Keywords — First, discover what keywords the competition may be bidding on, because this information helps you find new keyword ideas. Second, identify the companies you are bidding against when targeting specific keywords.

Ad text — Review many examples of competitors' ad text, and see what offers, credibility statements and CTAs competitors are using. This information helps develop ads that outperform competitors.

Launching a PPC campaign without first conducting PPC competitor analyses can lead to disaster. For instance, if major competitors are all sending PPC traffic to elegantly crafted microsites, and you plan to send traffic to your home page, you will launch with one big strike against you. In the reverse situation, you will learn that investing in a microsite with strong conversion optimization will give you an enormous and perhaps decisive advantage over competitors using weak destination pages. Competitive research is not always the most glamorous PPC activity, but it plays a vital role in immediate and long-term PPC ROI.